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Sunday, February 10, 2013

We have had several posts dealing with the 1692 events or making mention of such. There were two Beacon issues with the theme. The latest was this year, with a subsequent post with this topic: Imagine a meeting. The thing was to call together all of those ancestors on someone's tree who were there, even participating in certain roles. In short, those ancestors' roles covered the gamut.

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One source for the Beacon issue in 2011 was Frances Hill's book about men of dangerous ideas. Her take on these matters made a lot of sense which will be discussed more fully with time. We intend to visit this theme a lot, since it does involve Salem which is Thomas' (and his peers') town, so to speak (yes, even the Village - they owned property there). So, we need to have continual interest; the events be-smirched the little place and left a lasting impact.

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Recently, I read Frances Hill's book: A Delusion of Satan. The Google site has reviews of the book. Frankly, I think the book is underrated. Now, it may be that the reviewers have read other books on the subject and have had more exposure to the details than I have had (novice but learning the ropes). Nevertheless, it's the first rendition that made the (human side of the) reality clear to me, as one reviewer noted.

Frances is coming from another viewpoint, being British. And, those in that region, then, were, too, for the most part. The Puritanical mindset played heavily. I had run across the Porter and Putnam controversy before, since Dr. Frank mentions that John Hathorne's grand-niece (granddaughter of his sister, Elizabeth) married Abel Gardner. Frances made me aware that Gen. Israel Putnam was an offspring of Elizabeth (Hathorne) Porter. Israel's father was with the Porters (married into the family).

But, on the other hand, Ruth Gardner, as a mere teen, was married to John thereby being the ancestor of Nathaniel. Frances mentions this in her modern bad guy book.

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All sorts of good souls, other than the Porters, tried to intervene with those who were the primarily involved with the mischief (we'll get back to Cotton Mather (cousin), Corwin (1/2 cousin), and others later). Yet, those good souls were not effective. Why? I asked before: what if Samuel Gardner (Corwin's brother-in-law) had still been alive? Thomas was gone, too.

The tragedy's real lasting effect is not the hanging. Rather, it's the jailing and torture of prisoners, many of whom were women of age. Or, men of age. Let's hear it for Giles, the man of iron, albeit one with his foot in his mouth (testified against his wife, or they aired their spats publicly).

So, speaking of the jailing, Dorcas Good was a mere 4+ years old. People were chained into uncomfortable positions. There were horrid actions on the part of bullies running the jails (err, dungeons). Corwin stole (a lot), essentially. When looked at with realistic eyes, there's nothing to romanticize (yet, this occurs on a particular day in a month during the fall of each year).

And, even worse, after Gov Phips said to knock it off, they kept people jailed until they could pay their way out (of course, their property had been stolen by the sheriff, many times). So, we have continuing bad straits for a while. Even restitution, obtained in some cases - like the Parker boys -- wasn't much consolation.

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By the way, some in power still have this Puritanical blood (of course, we can show the genealogical link) which led to the atrocities. Frances made this, and related, points in her bad guy book.

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The 1692 events have all been hashed out (in literature and in academic analysis - as well in popular expositions). What is (can be) new, though, is that we can look at modern descendants whose genes/memes are influenced (lastingly) by this thing. And, a particular interest might be of those whose ancestors were among the whole gamut of players of that time and turmoil. Such is the reality of the fan-in through time within a population.

10/30/2013 -- I am in the process of reading Katherine Howe's book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Dane, as in being related to Francis, of course. I wondered if there would be motivating material for a Beacon issue (we did have 1692 as a theme in 2011 and 2012). It is an interesting plot, especially the balancing of the characters, and their interactions, in two time periods is nice. The description that Katherine provides of little Dorcas Good in the underground cell surely depicts the poor, young thing's misery and shows Katherine's grasping of the horror. One wonders, from some of the modern views and comments, if people really understand the dire situation. Too, the main hypothesis might have some truth, in a slightly altered construction. You see, science has not shown as much light on human matters as some might think. But, then, for any knowledge that we have gained, we have also seen that the unknowns do not diminish. It's just that we get better able to cover (as in, remove from awareness) the holes in which lurk the demons.

09/04/2013 -- Again, the scene is built as follows. Those who came over are from the 10th to 13th generations back (for the most part) for someone alive now. By the time of 1692, lots of the earlier arrivals had passed on. So, that left the second generation (again, for the most part) as the elders. Now, taking a cohort mix (generational cut) round or about 1692 would give us someone on the current person's tree who would have about three generations living (including the level of their own cohorts). So, we would see siblings/cousins, parents/aunts/uncles, and the greats. In other words, it's a composite person that is built from that cohort mix (meaning, of course, that being on the tree implies ancestry) for which we can identify relationships blood (including 1/2 blood), in-law, and even friends. What Marjorie's chart does is to take someone who is in the mix and look at extended relationships. Now, consider what we would have if we did that for a large part of the composite mix. Would it not be an interesting view?